Three years on, families still mourn relatives drowned in Channel

Police patrol Wimereux beach, northern France, in November 2021 after the drowning tragedy – Copyright AFP/File STR

Akshata KAPOOR

Mohammed Hussein Mohammedie was just 19 when he left Iraq and attempted the perilous English Channel crossing in November 2021. 

He died alongside 26 others when their dinghy sank.

His family were refugees from Iran and suffered financial hardship, his father told a UK inquiry into the capsizing of the dinghy in the early hours of November 24, 2021.

“He wanted to be different. He wanted to be brave,” Hussein Mohammedie said of his son’s ambitions to leave Iraq, during the final days of the inquiry this week.

At least 27 people, including Mohammed, were killed in the deadliest Channel crossing from France to the UK on record. Four people remain missing.

Many of the victims were young men from the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq who left their hometowns in search of work and a better life.

At least seven women and two children were also killed.

The inquiry, held in a central London conference room, heard 27 impact statements recorded by family members on Wednesday and Thursday, telling stories of heartbreak, hope and enduring grief.

After the tragedy, Mohammedie spoke to one of only two survivors. “He told me that if they had rescued them half an hour sooner, my son would be alive.”

“This I cannot bear and can never forgive,” said the father. “Why were they not rescued?”

Mhabad Ali Ahmed was a mother-of-two from Arbil, the main city in Iraqi Kurdistan. She was attempting the Channel crossing to reunite with her husband in Britain.

By the time rescuers arrived, her organs had stopped working because of the cold.

“It breaks my heart to think of her alone and frightened, waiting in ice-cold water for help which would never come,” her mother, Bayan Hemedemin Saleh Ahmed, told the inquiry.

– Community ‘shocked’ –

Rory Phillips, a lawyer advising the inquiry, said that even though passengers made distress calls, “they were left in the water for more than 12 hours without rescue”.

Issa Mohamed Omar, one of the survivors, said if rescue had come “quickly, I believe half of those people would still be alive today”.

Omar, who had fled Somalia, told the inquiry in early March that passengers were “treated like animals”.

Like many of the victims, Shakar Ali Pirot left home in September 2021, disillusioned after being unable to find a job.

“If Shakar saw a future here in Kurdistan, he would not have left,” lamented his brother Shamal.

Shakar is now buried in Iraq next to his friend, Serkawt Pirot Mohammed, another victim from the town of Ranya.

“A number of victims were from Ranya, so our whole community was completely shocked,” Serkawt’s brother Sarhad said in the recording, his voice shaking.

For some families, the ordeal is not over.

Zanyar Mustafa Mina from Iraq is one of the four victims still classed as missing. 

His father, Mustafa Mina Nabi, said French and English authorities had not communicated with the family about search efforts.

“In three years we have been given no information,” he said.

“Sometimes I still believe he could be in a hospital or prison somewhere.”

– ‘Have to hope’ –

The father of Pshtiwan Rasul Farkha Hussein, another missing victim, said his family was still “waiting for Pshtiwan to come back”.

“I have to hope or else I will not survive,” he said.

Niyat Ferede Yeshiwendim’s body was buried in Lille, northern France, after the boat capsized but her family is still searching for “closure”.

The 22-year-old was studying to be a pharmacist in Ethiopia before the Tigray war broke out in 2020, forcing her to flee.

“Niyat had never even seen the sea before she came to Europe. It must have been so terrifying for her,” her brother Morris said on Thursday, the last day of the inquiry.

“We need to understand what happened and why Niyat was not rescued,” he said.

“We need to grieve as a family and find some sort of closure, which we cannot do until we know the truth.”

The inquiry is seeking to determine the role of the British authorities and to identify “lessons” to prevent future disasters.

A report is expected later this year, which could include recommendations to reduce the risks of similar incidents.

Small boat crossings have only increased since the tragedy, as desperate people continue to pay smugglers large sums of money to make the dangerous journey. 

Last year, more than 36,800 people crossed the Channel, up 25 percent from 2023.

Just last week, two people died trying to maje the treacherous journey in small boats.

“Nothing we can do will bring my brother back,” rued Saman, the brother of Iranian victim Sirwan Alipour.

“But what I can do now is ask people to look at migrants seeking a better life as humans.”